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Pure Korean VS Sino-Korean

Did you know that Korean uses
two number-systems? Just the thought of it makes us cringe, but I won't lift
your spirit up by saying it's not hard at all. Because the truth is... it
really is confusing to use at first. We have Pure-Korean number and Sino-Korean
numbers and each of them has their own set of one to ten.

Both of them follow the same
pattern which is ten + one/two/three and so on. However, in actual use, the
first four numbers in Pure-Korean evolve always when telling time, age, and
counting people or things. Hence, they automatically become 열한, 열두, 열세, and 열네. This doesn’t happen in
Sino-Korean which makes it again, a little complicated. Let’s begin counting
from twenty.

Pure-Korean

스물, 스물하나, 스물둘, 스물셋, 스물넷, 스물다섯, 스물여섯, 스물일곱, 스물여덟, 스물아홉

Sino-Korean

이십, 이십일, 이십이, 이십삼, 이십사, 이십오, 이십육, 이십칠, 이십팔, 이십구

They no longer follow the same
path. Pure-Korean numbers have special numbers for 20, 30, to 90 as
follows: 스물 (20), 서른 (30), 마흔 (40), 쉰 (50), 예순 (60), 일흔 (70), 여든 (80), and 아흔 (90). Then, we
attach any of the first ten numbers to count more as in 마흔다섯 (45), 예순둘 (62), and 아흔아홉 (99).

In Sino-Korean, the
pattern is different. We add “십” to numbers 일, 이, 삼,
and so on. Hence, 20 is 이십 and 30 is 삼십.
Then, we attach any of the first ten numbers to count more as in 사십오 (45), 육십이 (62),
and 구십구 (90).